On episode 796 of the Secret Identity podcast, I spoke with our pal Don Cardenas about the upcoming Kickstarter for Packs of the Lowcountry, a series he co-created with John Dudley. Well, the Kickstarter campaign has begun, and it's off to a great start, closing in on the one-third mark after just a few hours.

Check out the video above, and then head over to the Kickstarter page to help fund this project! And if you missed the interview with Don, you can check it out in the player below (the interview starts at about 41:00).

You kids know I'm a lifelong RPG nerd, having gown up on the D&D red box and spent years of my life around a table with friends and strangers, adventuring in fantastic worlds.

The Scarred Lands setting began with a book called the Creature Collection in 2000, a supplement for the third edition rules of Dungeons & Dragons. I bought that book and immediately wanted to know more about the world of Scarn, where a war between gods and titans had left the world broken. By the time the full campaign setting came out in 2002, I was all-in on the Scarred Lands, and had incorporated it into a campaign I'd been playing with friends. By the mid-2000s, the Scarred Lands had been fleshed out with over forty books and supplements, and was one of my favorite settings of all time. I was sad to see it fade away when the books stopped coming out.

But in 2013, Onyx Path announced they were bringing the Scarred Lands back, and updating the rules for both D&D 5e and Pathfinder. And now, you can get the new rules in both print and digital versions at Drive Thru! Both the Scarred Lands Player's Guide and the great supplement The Wise and The Wicked are now available!

A LAND WHERE LEGENDS WALK

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

Scarred Lands has been a favorite fantasy setting since the release of the Creature Collection for the d20 System in 2000. In subsequent years, over 40 titles were published for Scarred Lands, making it one of the most fully supported fantasy RPG settings ever and the premiere product line of Sword & Sorcery Studios.

The Wise & the Wicked introduces a rogue’s gallery of the Scarred Lands’ movers and shakers, characters who carry out the will of the gods or the fallen titans. These non-player characters can be friends, enemies, or simply convenient resources for the player characters in your game.

Inside, find villains such as King Virduk of Calastia, the Black Dragon, along with his wife, the beautiful (and black-hearted) Queen Geleeda; the Grand Vizier to King Virduk, the wicked warrior-mage Anteas; and the sinister general of Virduk’s northern armies, Archduke Traviak the Steel-Fisted. At the other end of the spectrum, meet the gracious Lady Ariniel, the Swan Knight, champion of Madriel; Kimer the Shatterer, bearer of the Earth Sword of Scarn and tenacious foe of the titanspawn of the north; and King Thain the Just, the Aleking, ruler of Burok Torn. And many others beside!

Here you’ll find a fascinating compendium of characters from the Scarred Lands, but easily transported into campaigns set elsewhere. In addition, find multiple appendices full of new magic items and artifacts, class archetypes and prestige classes, new feats, new creatures and races, and more.​

Creator Spotlight: Don Cardenas
Brian spoke with the co-creator artist of Packs of the Low Country about the upcoming collection and Kickstarter. You can follow Don on Twitter @DonCardenasArt, and check out all of his projects at doncardenasart.com.

Our friends over at Onyx Path have launched a Kickstarter for another amazing roleplaying game.

Cavaliers of Mars is a swashbuckling adventure setting from Rose Bailey, longtime developer of Vampire: The Requiem and other World of Darkness titles. Cavaliers draws inspiration from pulp fantasy and historical fiction, adding a modern edge and an exotic setting.

Cavaliers of Mars is powered by the DEIMOS system, in which a hero’s motivations and approach to problems strongly influence her chance of success. In combat, heroes face off with their enemies in contests of tactics and chance.

The Kickstarter for Cavaliers of Mars launched less than a week ago, but has already been funded more than five times its original goal! That means that stretch goals are being unlocked, and already include additional artwork, scenarios and supplements for the game. With three weeks left to go, this project is only going to get more awesome by the day as additional content is unlocked.